1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for collating and packing dry lasagna noodle product.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventionally, dry lasagna product is packaged into cartons by having laborers place a predetermined number of lasagna pieces, which have been mechanically cut after being removed from a stripper. A predetermined weight of lasagna are placed within a bucket which is traveling along a closed loop assembly line. The filled buckets enter into a conventional cartoner which empties the lasagna from the filled buckets and places the lasagna into cartons. The empty buckets are redirected back to the assembly line to be refilled by the laborers. Such an assembly line is very labor intensive and typically requires at least 10-20 people per shift to operate.
Attempts have been made to automate the packaging of dry lasagna product. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,969 discloses a machine for packaging lasagna that includes a mechanical cutter 17 which includes three rotary wheel plates 18, which mechanically cut the double layer of lasagna. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,081 to Pellaton discloses a device for removing lasagna noodles from the pasta oven by splitting the pasta output from the oven along separate paths, after which the pasta noodles are cut with a mechanical saw 146 at saw station 36. These attempts to automate the processing of the dry lasagna product have proved to be cumbersome and inefficient in use. In other words, the prior attempts to automize the packaging of dry lasagna product have resulted in significant down time in the respective machinery.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automated packaging system for dry lasagna product which requires fewer laborers to operate and which cartons and packages dry lasagna product at a greater production rate.